Children Uprooted is a UNICEF campaign centred around children living in Ireland who are refugees and migrants. This educational campaign has lessons for primary and secondary students to raise awareness and knowledge of children’s rights and the specific experiences of children who have been uprooted from their homes, families and cultures through video and classroom discussion.
Five migrant and refugee children, from the ages of 9 to 23 have shared their lives on video in order to start important conversations in Ireland.
The workshops introduce students to the reasons (root causes) why families decide it is time to go and the obstacles they face during their journey. On arrival, our young people faced many challenges which they share openly in their video blogs. The workshops will explore these in detail, from their sense of belonging, their new cultural identities, myths about their homeland and stereotypes about their culture. Learn more about what support has helped them feel at home in Ireland and how they have found their voice and hope that their peers will find a voice in support of the rights of every child, including refugees and migrant children.
The campaign is the result of a collaboration between migrant and refugee children living in Ireland, UNICEF Ireland, Irish Aid and primary and secondary school teachers.
Classroom workshops have been devised for primary and secondary school to prompt these conversations. They are in line with relevant curricula and rather than adding to teacher’s workloads, are intended to be taught in an integrated manner. The workshops have been tested in classrooms and reflect the input from teachers and pupils.
The aim is for children to have positive shifts in values and attitudes towards diversity and solidarity with refugees and migrants. Students will learn:
- To identify the rights of children
- To identify root causes of the global, local and personal understanding of displacement
- To identify their own cultural lens and how it impacts on relating to others
- To increase their activism in support of refugee and migrant children
Outline of Lessons The lessons start with the ‘Journey’ in which students learn about the the root causes of migration and the impact the journey has on children. ‘My Story’ follows, children are introduced to the young people who shared their stories of ‘Arrival’ to Ireland and their experience of living or ‘Residence’ in Ireland. The lessons conclude with ‘My Voice’ where students are encouraged to take action and lend their voice to some of the issues they covered in the lessons.
Teacher Guidance The workshops are supported with a full teacher guidance document for primary and secondary school lessons.
Learner Journal The student’s learning is guided by a learning journal, used for reflection and deeper understanding of an issue.
Evaluation
As one of the primary aims of this project is to enable children to have positive shifts in values and attitudes towards refugees and migrants, you may wish to engage with a pre and post- workshop evaluation. This can be done by interviewing three children before and after the workshop or by distributing a questionnaire to all children before or after completing the workshops. Sample interview questions and questionnaires are provided here .
Get involved!
Get involved with the project by tweeting responses to questions raised in the workshops, posting pictures of ‘actions’ taken with the class, using the hashtag #ChildrenUprooted. UNICEF Ireland’s social media pages are Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
